Archive for March, 2010

Season 2, Episode 13
Production episode: 2×18
Original air date: December 15, 1967
Star date: 3619.2

Mission summary

Kirk, Spock, and some red shirts are surveying Argus X for tritanium, a substance Spock says is “21.4 times as hard” as a diamond. As they look at a rock, a strange fog rolls over the rocks above them, but it retreats when they harvest a tritanium sample with a phaser beam. Kirk hasn’t seen the fog, but he notices a sweet odor. The smell triggers the memory of something on another planet eleven years ago. He sends the security officers out to look for a “gaseous cloud,” and asks Spock to scan for dikironium, an element rarely seen and even more rarely pronounced. From Enterprise, Scott reminds him that they’ll be late for their rendezvous with Yorktown if they delay, but Kirk doesn’t care. A little ways off, Ensign Rizzo monologues on how the thing he’s scanning seems to be changing, while the fog surrounds his two friends and appears to suffocate them. Instead of firing at it, he calls Kirk and Spock to tell them about it. By the time they rush to his aid, he’s unconscious, and Kirk already knows the dead security men are missing all of their red blood cells. Spock asks what they’re looking for, and he replies, “Something that can’t possibly exist, but it does.”

Mission Summary:
Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Chekov, and Lt. Galway beam down to the surface of Gamma Hydra IV, a scientific outpost in need of resupply. The away team finds absolutely no one on the surface, though, and Kirk orders the party to spread out and look for the colony’s inhabitants. Poor Ensign Chekov gets the shock of his life when he enters a dark building to find an incredibly old man dead on a table. He screams, scared out of his wits, and informs the captain. When Dr. McCoy examines the man he finds that he’s died of extreme old age. Mr. Spock says this is impossible, because no one on the colony was over the age of thirty! But just then, a very old couple enter the building. Hard of hearing and near senility, the man reveals himself to be Robert Johnson, the twenty-nine-year-old leader of the scientific expedition, and the woman beside him is his twenty-seven-year-old wife.

The Enterprise arrives at Capella IV to negotiate for mining rights to a rare mineral called topaline, which is essential to colonial life-support systems. Doctor McCoy has spent some time on the planet, so he briefs the senior crew on the Capellan culture: they are a large, warlike people who believe “only the strong should survive” and have a lot of taboos. Sound like anyone we know? Worried about showing force by bringing an armed security team, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down with a lone red shirt, and a “young and inexperienced” one at that. Grant is also excitable; when they discover a Klingon hanging out on the planet, he draws his phaser and is instantly killed by a kligat, a knife the Capellans can throw up to a hundred yards. Too bad Kirk failed to warn him that Klingons were in the area…

Season 2, Episode 10
Production episode: 2×15
Original air date: November 17, 1967
Star date: 3842.3

Mission Summary:Captain Kirk and Dr. McCoy are putting the finishing touches on their dress uniforms as the U.S.S. Enterprise arrives at Vulcan to pick up a delegation of ambassadors. These delegates from across the Federation are headed for a neutral planet code-named “Babel.” The planet Coridan, a small, poorly defended world rich in dilithium, has petitioned the Federation for admission, and a conference is being held to discuss their application. Tensions are already startlingly high when the Vulcan party comes aboard, lead by Ambassador Sarek, the Vulcan ambassador to Earth, joined by his human wife Amanda. Spock, in a charming moment, tries to teach Dr. McCoy how to do the proper salute but McCoy’s attempts are utter failures.

Sarek greets Captain Kirk and Dr. McCoy warmly (for a Vulcan…), but turns a cold shoulder to Spock. The captain is a little perplexed but shrugs it off and offers to have Mr. Spock take him for a tour of the ship. The ambassador immediately declines the offer. Awkwardly, Kirk invites Mr. Spock to visit his parents while they are in orbit around Vulcan.